


A Retelling: Fulton's Story

by Willow124



Category: D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994), D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996), Mighty Ducks (1992), Mighty Ducks (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fulton's POV, Gen, I also don't know how airports work outside of movies, I don't know how the court system works outside of movies, Mentions of alcoholism, Non-Graphic Child Abuse, Non-Graphic Violence, POV First Person, Retelling of All Three Movies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-03-18
Packaged: 2017-12-04 22:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 18,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/715784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willow124/pseuds/Willow124
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What was Fulton Reed thinking while while everything was going on? We don't really know much about the first person to become a Duck, so I thought I would write my version. This is from his point of view, and it covers all three movies, some sections between them, and a little bit after they end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Please remember this while you are reading, the character Fulton Reed was roughly twelve years old at the beginning and fourteen or fifteen when the movies ended... there will be some grammar errors that stem from that. Using the phrase "me and ..." instead of "... and I" is intentional at some points. I am sorry if this bothers you, but it felt right to write it this way since it is from his POV.

_“Look, it was an accident, alright?”_

_“Nevermind the window, where'd you learn to shoot like that?” Coach Gordon Bombay asked, looking at Fulton Reed._

_“I didn't learn, I just do it,” Fulton answered, wondering where this was going._

_“Do it again,” Bombay stated, smirking._

_Fulton lined up his shot and hit the puck, hard. The puck missed the suitcase/goal and knocked out another window on Bombay's van, making Fulton flinch slightly._

_“Well, you're great at breaking windows,” Bombay said, stunned, “but do you ever hit the goal?”_

_“Yeah... well, one out of five,” Fulton answered, shrugging._

_“Fulton, is it true what they say? About the scholarships and how they won't let you play hockey?”_

_“People talk. It don't mean nothing.”_

_“Why don't you play for us?”_

_“I can't.”_

_“What do you mean you can't?”_

_“I mean I can't.”_

_“You afraid?”_

_“No, I mean really can't, you moron. I don't know how to skate!” Fulton said angrily, slamming the puck into the suitcase and knocking it down._

_“Woah! Is that all that's stopping you?”_

 

* * *

 

    That was the first time I met Coach face-to-face. I had seen him at games, practices, and even at the skate shop, but we'd never actually been introduced. At first, he just seemed like a jerk, then he seemed like a cheating jerk when he tried to teach the team how to take dives (yeah, I knew about that… it was fairly obvious), but I guess that stage was over if he's actually looking for players and talent. I know that you're thinking that I'm just a dumb kid, but you couldn't be further from the truth. No, I don't get good grades in school, but it's not because I don't understand the work... it's because I'm never there to do the work. My teachers never believe my side of the story when I get caught fighting, so I'm suspended a lot, and the fact that my dad is a drunk doesn't help any. Between them, I'm out of school so much I'm amazed that the truant officer or social services haven't been to my house. Because of my dad, I don't know how to interact with people, which means I'm always getting into fights (he’s not exactly the greatest role model). I don't know how to skate because he won’t buy me skates... or anything else I want. I only get somewhat good clothes so that Social Services aren't called. They would have a field day with my house... not that it really matters. No one cares about whether or not I have a good home life. They just see the freakishly tall twelve-year-old in camo pants, an old army jacket, and a bandana. But Coach saw something that day. He bought me skates and taught me how to use them. The team taught me how to interact with people, which meant I was in fewer fights. The practices and games (and after parties/pizza if we do well) meant that I was rarely ever at home, which kept me away from my dad for long periods of time. These things combined meant that my attendance record improved drastically, which meant that I could actually do my homework and turn it in, but did the teachers care? No, they just glared at me like I was filth. I think they liked keeping me out of school or at least out of their classrooms… I don’t think they even look over my work anymore.  Coach was the only adult that didn't seem to think like that… other than Hans and Jan at the skate shop of course.

 

    When he told us that we were going to be the Ducks, I was the first to agree with the name. I just wanted to be part of something. I don't think the others realized how bad I wanted this to work. They were all I had, my only friends. Charlie was the only one who even came close to understanding, but he at least had his mom. Mine left us when I was three or four. I don't really remember and don't really care anymore. Hockey just let me _be_ , and that's all that ever mattered.


	2. The First Game and After

 

   At practice, he had said that this would work, but I didn't really believe him.

 

   He dumped out a bucket of pucks and said, “Okay, Fulton, shoot your heart out.”

 

   I was a little unsteady on my skates, but I did as he said and blasted the pucks toward the goal. The looks on the faces of the other team were priceless. They actually jumped when I broke the window. Coach knew that I still couldn't really skate, so he didn't put me in until the very end. We needed one more point to tie. I lined up my shot, and all of the other players paled and moved, quickly, out of the way. Connie ducked under my arm and passed the puck to Guy, who put it in the goal, giving us our first non-loss ever (okay, so it was a tie, but at least we didn’t lose… that has got to count for something).

 

   Coach took us out for pizza to celebrate. I didn't get home until really late, which in my mind is a good thing. It meant that Dad was already passed-out on the couch. Now, let's get something straight, he has never laid a finger on me when he was sober, but when he gets drunk, his mouth takes over and he tells me exactly how worthless he thinks I am and how I'm never gonna amount to anything. He also explains just how much he hates me and how it's my fault that Mom left us. I learned a long time ago that I needed to ignore him if I was going to stay sane. He doesn't like me ignoring him, so he pushes me around a little. It's when he's really drunk that I miss school. That's why I stay away from home as much as possible, going to District 5 practices and games even when I wasn't on the team, shooting pucks in alleyways, and hanging out at the skate shop.

 

   I cleaned up the house a little, trying to stay quiet, and went to bed with a smile on my face.


	3. A Forfeit and a Fight

 

    Practice was great. I'm getting to where I can skate around without stumbling and my shot is a little more accurate (it's still one out of five, but those other four are closer than they were). Coach is working with all of us to make us better. Even Charlie is less of a spaz.

 

    We had to forfeit Friday night's game against the Flames. Turns out that Coach used to be a _Hawk_ and that Adam Banks was going to join the Ducks.  Jesse, Terry, and Peter all heard him call us losers that didn't deserve to live, but I think there's more to that story than they know. No one who works with us that much would really believe that we are losers. Me and Charlie were the only ones to show up on the ice. The rest of the team called Charlie a traitor for going out there. They don't know me well enough to call me that, and I’m a lot bigger than them… not that that fact would matter to Jesse if he really wanted to start a fight.

 

    Monday morning at school, some of the guys started picking on Charlie because of the game. Soon, everyone on the team was involved, and we all ended up in detention... of course, that might be because we all quacked at the principal (as shown by the twenty “I will not quack at the principal.”s that we all had to write), but that's just my theory. Coach came in near the end of the first hour and asked to be our coach again (did I mention that he had quit?). He also explained his comments to Coach Reilly and his reasoning for wanting Banks on the team. He was smart in asking Peter to come back first. With Peter's agreement, we were a team again.


	4. A New Teammate and a Reward

    Well, that wasn’t awkward at all. Adam Banks just walked into the locker room with his Hawk gear. Charlie went to welcome him, but Jesse blocked him. None of us trust Banks, and there is no way he trusts us... especially since the last time we saw him, I was throwing him and two of his buddies into a pile of garbage. Jesse gave him a new nickname (Cake-eater) before we all filed out of the room. The game went well. Once we started trusting Banks a little and passed the puck to him, we actually scored a goal. His helping us to win earned him a spot on the team. Jesse still didn't trust him, but I didn't expect him to. I scored the winning goal. This game gave us our spot in the play-offs.

 

    Coach rewarded us making the play-offs by taking us to a North Stars' game. We even got to play around on the ice and meet a few of the players before the game started. Everyone had a great time, and the game was awesome. McGill and Larson, two of the Hawks, showed up at the game though. I think they threatened Adam, but I can't be sure. One minute he looked like he was enjoying the game, and the next he was slumped down in his seat, looking like someone had killed his favorite pet. I can tell that Jesse saw something, but he's still convinced that Adam is the enemy, so he won't say anything. I think it'll take something drastic for them to trust each other.

 

    The play-offs went about like we expected, but now we have to face the Hawks. I wasn't on the team the first time we played them, but I did see the game... no, I can't even call it a game; it was more like a massacre. But that was back when the team was District 5. We are the Ducks now. We are a lot better than we were.


	5. The Play-Offs and After

     I knew Coach Reilly was going to pull something! He had McGill take Adam out of the game. I'm not sure how hurt Adam is, but he was knocked into the goal post hard enough that it knocked him out and they had to carry him off the ice. I don't think he and Jesse are going to fight anymore. Adam told him to “kick some Hawk butt” for him. Now, Adam is officially one of us.

 

    Coach put me in, but we all knew that I was a target.  My bad skating makes it easy for the other team to knock me over.  Jesse was given permission to go after anyone that tried to rush me.  I think he liked that job a little too much.

 

    McGill just won't stop trying to kill us, especially the girls. The hell with it. There's only a few minutes left, so my absence won't matter much. I had to do something. I skated over and knocked him right over the wall, picking a fight with the entire team of Hawks in the process. Of course I got kicked out of the game, I expected nothing less. I went back to the locker room and changed before going back out and watching the rest of the game from my customary place in the stands. I got to my seat when there was about thirty seconds left. I saw McGill hook Charlie and swore. McGill got off too easy. I saw Charlie take the penalty shot. It went in, and everyone around me went nuts.

 

    We won the State Championship!! I joined the team out on the ice. I'm not one for showing emotions, but winning felt really good. Everyone was excited and no one could really believe that we won. I mean, we were dead last at the start of the season (and through the first half of it… and the last few years).

 

    Coach went on for a good ten minutes about how good we all were and how proud he was once we got back to the locker room. He also gave us an update on Adam's condition... they're taking him to the hospital to get x-rays, and he'd tell us more when Philip Banks calls him. Coach and Mr. Banks still don't like each other much, but Mr. Banks has started to respect Coach because, apparently, Adam seems happier playing with us than he ever was playing with the Hawks, like that was a surprise... anyone would be miserable playing for Reilly, even Bombay was.

 

    Since it was still fairly early, all of the parents agreed to let Coach take us out for pizza again.  I think Coach knows that something is up since Dad didn’t show up at the game.  He kept asking me if I was sure that it was okay for me to be out.  I’m not sure how long I can avoid his questions or how long I _want_ to avoid them.  The team is too focused on the win and whether or not Adam is okay to even think about which parents are missing, but they might wonder about it tomorrow.  I hope not.  My home life is a well-kept secret, and I want it to stay that way, at least I do right at this moment… I don’t want to ruin the celebration by bringing up problems that the team can’t do anything about.  Mr. Banks finally called Coach.  Adam is gonna be fine, but they’re keeping him in the hospital for the night just in case they missed something.  Mr. Banks is one of the best lawyers in the state… there’s no way the hospital would want to get on his bad side my messing up when his kid is involved.

 

    By the time I walked home from the pizza place, it was really late, and I knew that I was in trouble… I didn’t tell Dad that I had a game tonight which was a big mistake.  If I had told him that I had a game, he would’ve passed out on the couch, but since I wasn’t home and he didn’t know that I had somewhere to be, he was wide awake.  He was not happy with me, and he was really drunk.  He didn’t even let me tell him where I was all day… he didn’t care.  All he knew was that I wasn’t home when he got here.  At that moment, I knew that I had to get out of here… I had to leave.  Maybe I could tell Coach, he seemed to care for all of us, and he was a lawyer.  Surely he could get me out of here for good.  Now, I just have to get out of here in one piece.


	6. Running Away and Safety

    Nothing’s broken tonight.  Dad just passed out on the couch again, leaving me on the floor.  I got up and packed a bag.  My music was the only important thing I owned, other than my gear, so it went in the bag first.  Some of my better clothes went in next.  I didn’t really care about the rest.  I picked up that bag, my backpack, and my hockey gear and left.  I had gotten maybe ten steps down the road when I realized that I had no clue where Coach lived.  But that’s okay; I had a Plan B…Plan B being the skate shop.  Hans and Jan told me once that their door was always open.  The shop was only a few blocks from my house, but it took me a lot longer than normal to get there and the snow didn’t help much besides making my skin numb.  Luckily for me, Hans saw me coming up the driveway and had the door open.

 

    The brothers grabbed my stuff and helped me into the back room before asking me what had happened.  I finally told them the truth.  I think that they had always known that something was wrong, but without proof, they wouldn’t say anything, and I was really good at hiding my bruises.  They were glad that I had decided to leave and come to them for help, but they didn’t like that, at 12 years old, I was that good at hiding injuries.  They made sure that nothing was broken and checked to see if I had a concussion before letting me go to sleep.  They also told me that Coach would be here as soon as they could get him here, even if they had to drag him out of his apartment first thing in the morning.  I trusted them and went to sleep in safety for the first time that I can remember.


	7. Getting A Lawyer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I start this chapter, I just want to say that I know several foster children and several adopted children who are all very happy in the new homes. I have absolutely nothing against good foster parents who treat their children (both biological and not) with kindness, love, and respect.

            True to their word, Coach was in the shop when I got up the next morning.  It took me a few minutes to remember where I was, but once I did, I was glad that I wasn’t at home.  Coach wasn’t happy that I didn’t tell anyone what had happened, but once I explained that no one would care (and explained that no one had looked in on me even when I missed at least two days of school every week), his anger transferred to my teachers.  He told me that he could probably get me away from Dad but that I needed a guardian or I would go into foster care.  I really didn’t want that… not after all I had heard about some of those families (I’m sure that some are awesome, but I didn’t want to risk getting one of the bad ones), and I really didn’t want to take the chance that I would be moved away from the team.  Coach told me that he would ask some of my teammates’ parents and see if one of them could take me in.  If he couldn’t find one who could, Jan said that he would try to get my guardianship and that I could live in their guest room (not the little room in the shop, their actual guest room in the house that sits behind the shop).  I told Coach that I would rather just have the brothers as my guardians.  They knew me better than my friends’ parents did, and I spent most of my time there anyway.  He agreed and asked me if it was okay if he asked Mr. Banks for help.  Mr. Banks takes a wide range of cases, but he was famous in Minnesota for taking, and winning, a lot of cases involving children.  I told him that it was fine, and he made the call. 


	8. Telling the Team and the First Night at a New Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I would like to say that I have absolutely no idea how the court system works... as you will be able to see as this story progresses. I apologize for major errors.

            Surprise surprise, my dad was all too happy to sign over my guardianship to the brothers.  Mr. Banks told us when he got back from my old house that Dad didn’t even argue, he just asked where he had to sign and told Mr. Banks to tell me that he would never take me back in.  I’m fine with that.  Hans and Jan are already better guardians that Dad was.  As soon as the paperwork is filed at the courthouse, I’m going with Mr. Banks to see Adam.  The team is going to gather at their house and I’m going to tell them the truth or at least a shortened version of it.  It might take some of the attention off Adam, but at least this way, the team can’t single either of us out.  I know with absolute certainty that I don’t like being the center of attention, and I know that Adam doesn’t either.  We both might command the spotlight on the ice, but off the ice is a different story.

 

            The team was suitably shocked about my former home life (a few of them [Jesse, Terry, and Peter] promised retribution if I wanted it) and the girls vowed to go with me to get new clothes since I had left most of mine back at Dad’s, and he had probably burnt them all by now.  Hans and Jan had told me that they would pay for anything I wanted, so I decided to let the girls help me… I needed the help anyway.  Other than my rather scary skating trip through the mall, I had rarely been in there (no money and no desire to be around that many people).  I just had to make sure that they didn’t go overboard.  Guy was immediately volunteered to help by Connie, but he didn’t complain about it too much.  They had been stuck together ever since we all went to the North Stars game, and they had kissed yesterday when we won the game.  The four of us decided to go tomorrow.  It was a Sunday, so fewer people would be there, hopefully.  We couldn’t go today because Tammy had skate practice, and we all had school on Monday.  Jan had promised to go with me on Monday to fill out paperwork regarding my new address and guardians.

 

            Anyway, after shocking the team enough for a lifetime, we decided to go skating.  Tammy and Tommy had to leave of course, but the rest of us went to the pond.  It was still too cold to roller blade, so we all agreed to meet there in one hour.  That would give us time to go home and get our skates.  Hans and Jan happily presented me with a somewhat new pair of skates (they were just worn enough that they wouldn’t blister my feet when I used them, but they weren’t falling apart like my old ones were) and told me to have fun and that dinner was at six.  Since I lived so close to the pond, I was one of the first ones there.  Adam had beaten me there of course, and Charlie practically lived there, so he knew all of the short-cuts.  The others arrived shortly.  The rest of the day, we all just played around on the ice.  Outside of practice and games, it was the most fun I’d ever had.  Around five, some of the parents arrived to drag their children home for supper.  I still had an hour, but once everyone left, there was no reason for me to stay.

 

            Once I got home, Hans and Jan asked about my day, and for the first time in a long time, I was genuinely happy to be home early.  Since this was my first night as their ward, Jan made his specialty, hasenpfeffer and eggs.  No, that is not a normal supper, but this is a celebration.  Jan let me know that he was going with us to the mall in the morning to pay for everything and so we didn’t have to carry everything back.  After helping with the dishes, the three of us drifted into the living room.  Hans and Jan watched TV while I got out my homework.  See, I told you that I was a good student.  Normally, I would have to hide in my room and be as quiet as possible if I wanted to finish my work, but the brothers had told me over dinner that I could do my work in the living room if I wanted to.  I didn’t have much.  My school loves hockey and would do nothing to ruin an important game, even if it means not giving a lot of homework to the players right before a game.  Once I finished what little I had, Hans looked over it and gave me pointers on some of the stuff I didn’t know.  The night went by fast, and soon it was time for bed.  Yes, it was a Saturday night, but the last two days have been exhausting and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.


	9. Shopping with the Girls (and Guy)

            Jan woke me up at nine so I could get ready.  I was supposed to meet the girls and Guy at the mall around eleven.  We had decided to eat there and then shop.  I know, guys are not supposed to like shopping, but I’ve never really been.  It can’t be as bad as everyone says, right?

 

            I change my mind.  Shopping is worse than everyone says.  I am never going to the mall with the girls ever again.  Poor Guy offered to carry all of Connie’s stuff, so I offered to carry Tammy’s… big mistake.  How can they need this much stuff?  We’ve been at the mall for all of three hours, and my arms are ready to fall off.  Only a third of this stuff is mine.  They convinced me that I needed new boots, and then they tried to match everything to those boots, or at least Tammy did.  Connie is nowhere near as happy to be shopping as Tammy is, so she was able to temper Tammy’s actions and get the figure skater to actually let me pick my own clothes, which mostly consisted of blue jeans and a lot of shirts from Hot Topic… I never realized how many of my favorite bands had t-shirts in that place.  I also ended up getting a new coat (Jan insisted) and a few things from other shops, including some things to go in my new room.  Another hour later and Guy finally convinced Connie that she should convince Tammy that we had spent enough money.  We loaded all of our stuff into Jan’s car and he took the other three to their homes before taking us back to the Skate Shop.  Since I didn’t buy all that much, it only took two or three trips to the car to get everything.  Hans helped me cut the tags out of everything before he took all of it to the laundry room.  I put up my new posters and basically put stuff away while I was waiting.  I wasn’t really decorating, but I had a clear idea of what I wanted my room to look like and I tried to fix it so I knew where everything was.  Once my clothes dried, I put them up and went downstairs for supper. 

 

I’m not sure which brother cooked this time, but they have got to teach me some of their recipes.  I can cook a little (matter of self-preservation), but their food is some of the best ever.  I finally asked them if they could teach me; they happily agreed.  Apparently, Coach laughed at their culinary skills every single time they cooked for him.  After we finished eating and doing the dishes, we all headed to the living room.  I can sense that this is going to become a ritual.  I like it.  It’s comforting to be around the brothers.  Once again, they helped me with my school work.  I had decided earlier that I would try a little harder at school, so I was going over some stuff that was due later in the week to make sure I didn’t make any stupid mistakes.  I had finished all of this while I was at Dad’s, but I knew that I couldn’t do my best while I was there.  Plus, Hans and Jan had really good insights when it came to English and history.  I was on my own in science, but they were absolutely awesome when it came to math.  When it was time for bed, Jan promised me that he would wake me up.  Out of all the things we bought today, we couldn’t remember to get an alarm clock for my room.  Hans told me that he would pick one up when he went grocery shopping the next day though, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.  Jan was going with me the next day, so it’s not like him waking me up was a problem.  It was just a little annoying that I had to rely on someone else after waking myself up since I was five years old.


	10. Paperwork, Homework, and More Lawyer Stuff

    I really don’t like paperwork.  I’ve had to fill these forms out on my own for the last three years, and they are still as tedious as ever.  You would think they would make them shorter for the students who have gone to this school since kindergarten.  I guess that wouldn’t work right now though.  Jan brought in all the papers that Mr. Banks had given him, so actually getting these forms didn’t take very long.  Filling them out was another story.  I think these papers are multiplying… that’s the only thing that would explain why I have had to write my name twenty times on four forms that look exactly alike.  I’m glad that Jan decided we needed to get here early; at this rate, we’ll finish in time for supper.  This time, I’m glad to be wrong.  Instead of taking us all day, we filled out the last form in time for me to get to my first class with the copies I have to take to my teachers.  Jan also gave me a letter for each teacher, so I’m just going to hand it over at the same time as the official paperwork.  I don’t know what his note says, but my teachers do not seem happy about it.  Oh well, there’s nothing I can do about it.  Jan had told me that he would be by after school because he wanted to talk to my teachers in person, which might be what the note says, so if I wanted to go hang out with the team that was fine as long as I was home in time for supper.  I’ve only been at their house for two days, and I already like it there much more than my Dad’s place.

 

    I talked to Charlie and Jesse at lunch.  They were planning on getting the team together to hang out after school… it’s still too cold to play street hockey, but it’s getting almost warm enough that we can’t skate on the pond.  I agreed, and we all headed to class.  Our science teacher still hates us for throwing his atoms a few weeks ago, but he’s fair in grading our homework, so it all works out.  School is boring.  The only fun part is PE simply because we’re skating in the gym to celebrate winning the game Friday night.  Charlie has been helping me because, even though I’ve been skating for weeks now, I’m still a little unsteady when I’m not focused on winning a game.  Maybe I’ll be better at it by the time summer gets here.  I hope so anyway.

 

    Being around the team is just fun.  We were going to skate around town, but since there is ice covering everything, that’s not the best idea.  We ended up watching a movie at Charlie’s house.  His mom made us snacks.  When the movie was over, all of us headed out.  It’s not a long walk from Charlie’s to the skate shop, which I’m glad for because it really is cold out, especially now that it’s getting dark.

 

    Hans happily presented me an alarm clock after dinner (the brothers make really good hamburgers!).  Once again, our ritual included sitting in the living room watching TV while doing my homework on the coffee table.  Jan decided that now would be a good time to tell us about his talk with my teachers. As it turns out, he was very frank in that if he ever found out that an abused child was in their care and it wasn’t reported, he would report them to the police for neglect, he also told them that they better grade my homework fairly or he would be back for another talk.  I don’t like thinking of myself as abused, but I know that Jan was just trying to make a point.  He told me that if I had any problems with them to tell him, and he would take care of it.  Hans said the same thing.  I told them that I would and that was the end of it.  There were no big speeches about me being wronged.  I guess that’s why I feel so comfortable here… the brothers don’t make a big deal about things that they can’t change.  The only time I’ve ever seen them angry is the night a few days ago when I came to them covered in bruises.  Hans told me that he had gotten a phone call today from Mr. Banks.  We had a court date that would make the brothers my permanent guardians… they currently only had temporary guardianship over me.  Mr. Banks had told Hans that this was just a formality.  The papers that Dad had signed would make the entire process go a lot easier.  Hans also told me that I could press charges against Dad if I wanted to… just to ensure that he could never get me back.  I told them that I would follow their advice.  If they thought I should, then I will (or at least, Mr. Banks will… a twelve year old would probably not be the ideal person to press charges against someone.)  They nodded and said they would call Mr. Banks back tomorrow while I was at school.  I went to bed that night with a smile on my face, the glow of my new clock lighting up the room.


	11. School and Lawyers

    My teachers had a new attitude when I got to school the next morning.  (Jan has decided that it is his responsibility to drive me there, at least until it gets warm out, because the bus doesn’t go out as far as the skate shop and it’s a long walk to the nearest bus stop.)  They had apparently decided to take Jan’s threat seriously.  They still didn’t like me much, but I don’t think that can be helped.  Instead of looking at me like I’m the scum of the earth, they didn’t look at me at all unless they were asking a question.  It was a huge improvement.  On the downside, the teachers seem to be making up for the lack of homework during hockey season by giving us twice as much as normal.  This is a normal thing that happens every year, but I really want it to be over.  It will only last until we’re caught up, but it still sucks.  Our science teacher gave us even more than the others because he is now free to punish us for the atom incident (he’s a bigger hockey fan than we thought… he didn’t give us any homework at all before the championship game!).  I can’t really blame him though… he was the one that had to pick up all of the atoms after we threw them at each other, I think one of them even ended up on top of his bookshelf.

 

    Since Hans was going to talk to Mr. Banks today, the brothers wanted me home right after school in case he wanted to speak to me directly.  As soon as I got home, the three of us got in the car and went to Mr. Banks’s office.  Hans told me that he would need to speak with me about what was going to happen at the hearing and talk about what charges should be pressed against Dad.

 

    Mr. Banks had a huge office right in the middle of Edina.  He is one of the richest lawyers in that area… making me wonder how Hans and Jan are paying for this, maybe I’ll ask later.  We spent almost two hours talking through what might happen and what charges can be pressed against Dad.  Mr. Banks wanted to know pretty much everything about Dad, and I had over 7 years worth of memories about him.  I told him as much as I could remember about the man I grew up with.  He let us go around five, telling us that he had more than enough to put Dad in jail for quite some time and give my guardianship to the brothers.  He told them that he could already see a change in me even though he doesn’t know me that well.

 

    It was already supper time by the time we got home, so the brothers ordered pizza.  Once we were done and seated in the living room, they told me that they wanted me to teach them what I had learned in my science class.  They said that this would help me figure it out more than doing it by myself would.  Jan got it faster than Hans did, but by the time I had finished my homework, they were both helping me in every subject and I had figured out a lot of things I had been confused about.

 

    I can’t believe that I’ve only been here three days.  It seems like so much longer.  I don’t miss Dad’s house at all.  Hans and Jan don’t make me cook for myself every day.  They let me play my music as loud as I want (the walls are very thick and their room is on the other side of the house), and they let me dress however I want.  I never had that at Dad’s.  The homework help and the fact that I don’t have that many chores help, too.  The brothers had told me over dinner that my only chores were cleaning my room, helping with the dishes, and helping out in the skate shop whenever I was there.  We talk about a lot of stuff over dinner.  They tell me about the different customers in the shop, and I tell them about what happened at school…. Their day is a lot more interesting than mine.  I finally asked them how they were paying for the best lawyer in the state and all the stuff they bought for me… they’re apparently really rich.  They said that the skate shop can take in several thousand dollars a day and they have sponsors from a lot of companies that literally pay them for selling their stuff.  Plus, all of the teams in the area buy all their equipment there, and so do all of the local figure skaters. I didn’t think that a little skate shop could make that much, so it came as a real surprise when they let me see the numbers.  Today was a really good day (except for dragging up a lot of old memories).  The brothers made sure I got to bed on time; no excuses could make them change their minds about that.  I didn’t really mind (it’s a lot easier to concentrate when I’m not half-asleep), but I have a feeling that I might later on.


	12. Court and News

    Today is Friday. I’ve been at Hans and Jan’s for a week already, and it’s still as nice there as it was at the beginning of the week.  Our court date is today.  Jan is going to pick me up as soon as school is over today.  We don’t have to be there until four (something about Mr. Banks convincing the judge that taking me out of school would not be in my best interest considering my attendance record), so Jan is going to take me home so that I can change into nicer clothes (the brothers made sure I was able to get a nice outfit for special occasions).  Coach has decided that it would not be a good idea for him to be there.  He apparently knew the judge from when he was a lawyer.  Mr. Banks told me that this is just a hearing to determine if I’m better off with the brothers than I was with Dad. 

 

    Well, it’s official; the brothers are my guardians permanently. Dad signed some papers at the hearing and the judge signed some more and made it official.  Mr. Banks took the time to press charges against Dad.  He said that Hans, Jan, Coach, and I would all be called to testify if Dad went to court.  He also said that there might not be enough evidence to keep Dad in jail for very long since I never went to the hospital for my injuries.  I don’t really care either way.  As long as I never have to go back, I can deal with him not being in jail.

 

    Another good thing that happened is that Mr. Banks let me in on a little secret; Adam is transferring out of his preppy private school to the school the rest of us go to.  He said that the Hawks were really sore about losing to us and that they were taking it out on Adam since they couldn’t get to us.  Adam hasn’t been hurt, the preppy teachers are too observant for that to happen, but he has been the victim of a lot of pranks and a lot of cold shoulders.  He is more stressed out than anything, and Mr. Banks said that Adam might like to have his friends in the same school as him instead of being surrounded by the ones that hurt him.  It was supposed to be a surprise, but Mr. Banks wanted to make sure that someone was looking out for his son, and since it’s basically my job to look out for the team, it made sense for me to be the one in the know (Mr. Banks had heard about what I did to the Hawks after they knocked down Adam and Tammy… and what I did to Adam, Larson, and McGill when they were picking on Karp).  Adam isn’t going to tell the team until he walks into homeroom Monday morning.  I can’t wait to see their faces.  Our teachers are just going to love having the entire team in every class (they already love having us all together, I can just imagine how they’re going to feel with one more added to the mix).

 

    Coach (and the entire team and their parents) met us at the skate shop.  They wanted to know how everything went at the hearing.  Hans explained that I was with them permanently.  The team surrounded me in a group hug (which I’m not entirely comfortable with, no matter what happened the moment we won our last game) and basically let me (and the brothers) know that they were happy for me.  Since it was almost six, Hans ordered pizza for everyone (like I said, they’re rich).  We made plans to go to the rink tomorrow and fool around all afternoon.  Coach promised the parents that he would babysit us… they knew how much trouble we could get into without someone watching.

 

    Once the pizza disappeared, everyone else slowly followed.  Coach was the last to leave.  He sat and helped when I got out my homework (which I had to do tonight if I wanted to go have fun this weekend… another thing that I was told over dinner one night this week) and talked to the brothers.  He wanted their advice on whether or not he should take the try-out that the North Stars had offered him.  Hans is the absolute best when it comes to advice, and this time was no different.  He told Coach that he should go for it (of course, he said this in a very round-a-bout way that sounded very smart).  Coach finally left about thirty minutes before the three of us went to bed.  It had been a long day between school, the hearing, and the impromptu pizza party.  I went to bed happy.  No one can make me go back to Dad’s now.  I hadn’t realized that I was worried about that until after the hearing was over.  I fell asleep with a smile on my face.


	13. A New Kid At School

    Today is Monday, and even though we spent almost the entire weekend together, the team didn’t realize that Adam was switching schools.  The looks on my teammates’ faces were priceless when he walked into homeroom.  I can’t believe that they didn’t figure it out.  Adam had been dropping hints all weekend.  One look at him and I could tell that he thought it was hilarious, too.  He had to give the normal “Hello, my name is _______, I am from ______” speech at the start of every class even though the only ones that didn’t know him where the teachers (one of the cool things about a small school, our schedules are all the same since there are only enough students for two classes per grade).  Once lunch time arrived, I could tell that Jesse and Charlie were barely holding back they questions.  Sure enough, they started in as soon as he sat down.  Adam explained that his parents had thought it would be better for him to be around his friends than it was for him to be around the backstabbers he used to call friends.  Most of the team was perfectly fine with that explanation, but Charlie and Jesse just kept pushing.  It took me sitting between them to make them stop and gave Adam the chance to eat.

 

    After the inquisition was over, everything went back to normal for the team.  It was a little odd to have Adam in all of my classes, but that wore off quickly.  Averman and Goldberg were back to joking, Adam and Tammy were fighting for the top spot in every class, Guy started dating Connie, and the rest of us were having fun as usual.


	14. A Change

    Everything stayed the same for months with very few changes happening.  Adam’s parents letting him hang out with us a lot more was the only major change.  Then, Coach came to us with some news… he was going to the try-out that his friends in the North Stars had promised him.  Everyone was really happy for him.  We all lined up to send him off, giving him advice as he went down the line saying good-bye.  He kissed Mrs. Conway when he got to her.  We all knew that he liked her, but they had never done anything in front of us like that (apparently, they hadn’t kissed in front of Charlie either because he was just as surprised as the rest of us).  Right before the bus took off, he told us that we had to be ready to defend our title next year.


	15. A New Employee

    Dad’s case never went to court.  Mr. Banks made a deal with him.  I’m not sure exactly what it said, but I do know that he’s going to be in jail for a few years at least.  I’m not sure what I should think about all of this.  I mean, he’s my dad.

 

    Anyway, Charlie has started hanging around the shop a lot.  His mom is dating again, and he doesn’t like the guy at all.  Jan gave him a job sharpening skates just to give him something to do.  (Hans taught me how one weekend when the team couldn’t meet because of rain, and anytime I need money, I work for it.  The brothers have no problem buying me stuff, but if I want any pocket money, they want me to earn it.)  The biggest change this summer was that Hans went back to Norway to visit his and Jan’s mother.  Jan apparently went last year.  They wanted to be there for her because she was getting older, but they couldn’t leave the shop (and now me).


	16. Good News and Bad News

    Charlie’s mom got married a few months ago.  She is now Mrs. William Oliver.  Charlie absolutely hates the guy, so he has been spending even more time at the shop.  Jan gave him permission to use the second guest room whenever he wanted. (Their house is huge.  They could probably house the entire team if they wanted to with no trouble at all.)  Jan only asked that Charlie tell his mom where he was whenever he spent the night.  He didn’t use his room often, but he did keep a change of clothes here, along with a few posters and things he didn’t want his step-dad to be anywhere near.

 

    Summer is over now.  School started a week ago.  The school made sure that all of us were together in every class.  All of the non-hockey players are in a different class (there are roughly 25-30 kids in each grade here, so splitting us up like this was simple).  On the days we have to leave early for games (once the season starts again anyway), our entire class leaves at once.  Of course, our last period teacher loves having us on those days because she gets to go home early.

 

    Jan just told me some good news.  Coach is coming back.  He’ll be here Friday night.  He’s going to be staying in his old room inside the skate shop.  We (as in me, Charlie, and Jan) have been keeping up with Coach’s hockey career, so we were watching when he got hit.  We could tell that he was really hurt.  Jan told me that the hit blew out his knee.  I feel bad for Coach, but I’m glad that he’s coming back.  Jan made me promise not to tell anyone.  Charlie knows, of course, because he saw Jan fixing up Coach’s room and he saw the game.  Charlie’s new step-dad is taking the whole family out to eat Friday night, so Charlie won’t be here, but he has to work Saturday, so he’ll be here early.  I promised Tammy and Tommy that I would help their mom pack their car that morning, so I won’t be here, but I get to see Coach Friday night, so it all works out.

 

    Tammy and Tommy are moving to LA so that they can compete in more skating competitions (that, and their mom doesn’t like hockey and is trying to take them away from what she calls bad influences…. I don’t see how see can call us bad influences; Tammy was way more violent before she started playing than after, at least now Tommy can hold his own against her).  Karp decided that he didn’t want to play hockey anymore… especially after he got hit in the head with the puck.  He finished last season, but no one could convince him to come back this year.  Peter wanted to play again this year, but his parents dropped a bombshell on him about two weeks before school started… they were moving to some little town in the middle of nowhere that doesn’t have any sports teams whatsoever. He was devastated. Terry broke an arm and a leg trying to pull off some stunt in the park two days before school started back, so he won’t be able to play for a good portion of the season… his dad told him that he could play again next year.  He is not happy, but there’s nothing he can do.  That means that almost half the team is gone this year.  Coach is going to have to do something drastic (again) to get more kids on the team.  He literally had every kid in District 5 playing (every kid that wanted to play anyway).


	17. The Five Leave

    Today’s Sunday.  Tammy and Tommy left for LA a few hours ago.  The entire team (including Coach) was there to see them off.  Terry’s in a wheelchair, so Jesse had to push him.  The only person missing is Peter; his family left town the day before school started.  Even Karp showed up.  Connie was not happy at all that the only other girl on the team was leaving.  Terry wasn’t happy that his two best friends were both going to be gone… and his crush.  Terry and Karp were both sent to the non-hockey playing class this year.  The school figured that it would be easier since neither of them are playing this year.  What it means though, is that all of their friends are going to be in the other class.  Mr. Hall had no sympathy for his youngest when Terry asked to be put in our class… he said that Terry should’ve thought about that before trying a stunt that could end in broken bones.  I’m not really sure what he was trying to do, but according to Karp, it ended in him laying half in the fountain with only one skate left on.

 

    Coach has been staying with us for two days now, and I think Charlie is ready to move in.  I don’t think he’s been home since Coach showed up.  That is going to change though.  Jan and Coach are going to team up on Charlie and force him to go home tonight since it’s a school night.  Charlie gave in pretty quickly… his mom has been calling almost nonstop telling him to come home.  He had to go back anyway because tomorrow is a school day and all of his school stuff is there.


	18. Jan Plots

    Coach has been here for all of a week, and Jan has already talked him into coaching again. Jan has, for months, been talking to some Hendrix guy on the phone, trying to get Coach a job. I think Jan knew that Coach wouldn’t be playing for long. It’s not official yet… Coach still thinks that he’s not going to take the job, but Jan has that twinkle in his eyes like he knows something that no one else does. I’m supposed to take a new pair of skates to someone on the other side of the park tomorrow, and Charlie is not supposed to come to the skate shop for the next week (his mom thinks he’s been spending too much time here). Whatever Jan is planning, I bet it happens tomorrow.


	19. A New Adventure Begins

    I was right.  I was on my way back from dropping off some kid’s new skates when I heard a duck call ring out across the park.  I was about to join them when I saw something odd… three Hawks tying fishing line across the path that my teammates were skating down.  Oh, look… it’s McGill, Larson, and some blonde kid that I remember shoving at the game last year.  They decided to hide in a bunch of canoes so that they could watch their prank without anyone seeing them.  Well too bad, guys.  I stood behind them until they started gloating about how awesome their little stunt is; then I stepped in to protect my teammates.  I think I gave McGill a heart attack when I spoke up.  It didn’t take long at all to have them stripped down to their boxers and tied to a tree.  They shouldn’t have tried to clothesline my teammates with fishing line tied to a tree… it made it way too easy to use their tree and line against them.  Since one end of the line was already tied to the tree, it took seconds to loop it around the Hawks.

 

    Right as I got the line tied off, the Ducks spotted what was going on.  They cheered loudly and skated up to me.  Charlie explained that we were going to the Junior Goodwill Games in LA, making our captive audience turn a weird color somewhere between red and green (or anger and envy, if you want to look at it like that).  Coach had told Charlie to round up everyone and meet him at the dinner car where Mrs. Oliver works, so we headed that way.  I figured that someone would untie the Hawks eventually… I mean, the park was really crowded, so there’s bound to be someone who likes them there (or feels sorry for them, either way works).

 

    Coach was standing right where he said he’d be.  We had barely stopped cheering when a limo pulled up.  A short guy in suit stood in the skylight and introduced himself as Don Tibbles, Senior VP of Hendrix Hockey, our official sponsors.  I’m not sure if I like him or not… he seems way too happy for someone that has to basically babysit a bunch of teenagers.  Coach got in the limo and talked with Mr. Tibbles for a few minutes before getting out and explaining what’s going to happen.  We’re going to pack up and go to some college town for two weeks.  While we’re there, we’ll meet our five new teammates and get to know them better.  Once the two weeks are over, we’ll fly to LA.  Once there, we’ll have one week to train and get used to being in LA before our first game.  We won’t know who we’re playing first until we get to LA because the organizers won’t release the information until all the teams are there.  Coach handed out the paperwork that he needed us (and our guardians) to fill out.  He told us that we’re going to leave the day after tomorrow.  He also told us that he was going to go around and talk to our guardians today to make sure that they know what is going to happen.  While he’s doing that, the rest of us are going to go pack, and in two hours, we’re all going to meet at the skate shop.  We spent all summer playing street hockey, so some of our gear isn’t in the best shape.  Mr. Tibbles said that he would pay for any equipment we needed, so we’re going to replace pretty much everything.

 

    The team got here early.  Connie and Guy are the last ones to walk through the doors of the shop, and they were almost thirty minutes early.  Everyone came in carrying their skates, which they handed to Jan to sharpen.  He was very happy with the whole thing and had filled out all of my paperwork in the hour and a half that I used to start packing.  Jan asked me and Charlie to help everyone get their stuff and he would figure up how much Mr. Tibbles is going to owe him.  Coach and Mr. Tibbles came in about an hour after everyone else.  The team had already grabbed everything they needed (I say they because Hans and Jan make sure my stuff stays in good shape all the time), and we were just hanging out by the time they got here.  Coach was holding the signed paperwork for the entire team once Jan handed him mine.  He told us that Mr. Tibbles already had our tickets and that all we would need to do is make it to the airport on time.  Jan offered to let the team stay at the house tomorrow night to simplify things.  Everyone agreed that it would be a good idea and said that they would ask their parents when they got home tonight.

 

    Once the team and Mr. Tibbles left, Coach stayed to help me and Jan sharpen everyone’s skates.  It didn’t take as long as I thought it would.  Coach explained to Jan that this wouldn’t affect my schoolwork (he didn’t explain how though) and what I could probably need to bring with me to LA.  Jan told me that he would take my books and school stuff back to the school for me after we left for the airport.  After dinner was over, Jan helped me finish packing my stuff.  He also showed me a letter he got from Hans.  He said that he had to stay where he was for a while longer because their mama took a turn for the worse and he didn’t want her to be alone in case something happened.  He said that he was fine, and he would send another letter in a few weeks.


	20. Pre-Travel Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know how I said I know nothing about the court system? The same can be said of airports and travel.

    I had to help Jan set up the extra bedrooms for the team.  Everyone’s parents agreed that it would be easier to make it to the airport by following Jan’s plan, so the team is going to be here around four.  Jan is ordering pizza for everyone for dinner, and he’s making sure that everyone is up on time.  Our plane leaves at nine, so Coach wants us at the airport at seven just to make sure we have time for everything.

 

    Jan got everyone to bed by eleven, which really impressed Coach who doubted that it was possible.  I was the last teen to go to sleep since it was the first night in months that I didn’t have my music (my stereo was packed with the rest of my stuff… as was most of my music, my alarm clock, and three or four of my posters).  Coach promised to wake us up around five so that we could eat breakfast before we left, and Jan promised to wake me up a little earlier so I could help with breakfast.  I would feel bad if I didn’t help him out.


	21. Travel and Five New Ducks

    Everyone was awake (mostly anyway), fed, and ready to go by six thirty.  The airport was only twenty minutes from the shop, so we made it there around seven.  Our luggage was loaded and we had gotten through security by eight thirty.  By eight fifty, we were boarding the plane and finding our seats.  The ride was only about two hours, so the movie was fairly short.  By the time Goldberg decided to take a nap, we were landing.  Coach made sure we all stayed together and that we all got our luggage.  We were then loaded into a tour bus and taken to a college campus and showed where we would be staying.  Coach handed out keys and told us to put our stuff in our rooms and then meet him in the hallway in five minutes (all of our rooms are along one hallway… even Connie’s).

 

    I opened my room to see that my roommate has already been here, which means that he’s one of the new Ducks.  It didn’t take long to put my bag on the unoccupied bed.  I got back into the hallway first and watched as everyone else came out.  Connie was next; she either has a room to herself or there’s a new girl on the team because no one in their right mind would put a boy in with her… either she would kill him or Guy would (or her parents when they found out).  Adam and Charlie came out next (they were rooming together).  Goldberg, Averman, and Guy all came out of different rooms, which meant that their roommates are all new Ducks.  Once everyone was in the hall, Coach led us to the rink.  Connie was sent to the visitors’ locker room while the rest of us went to the home locker room.  Coach warned us that if he caught any of us in what he’s calling the girls’ locker room, then he would bench us for an entire game and make sure our parents knew.

 

    We walked into the locker room and saw that four of the lockers were already full.  We all changed quickly.  I think we all just wanted to meet our new teammates.  Connie met us on the ice.  We all lined up behind Coach as Mr. Tibbles walked out on the ice followed by five teens in full hockey gear.  Coach asked Mr. Tibbles to tell him about the new kids, and Mr. Tibbles started naming them off, telling where they were from, and telling why they were picked for the team.

 

    The first kid was named Luis Mendoza.  Mr. Tibbles said that he’s a speedster from Miami with a blue line to blue line time of 1.9 seconds… the problem was that he could not stop once he got started.  He slammed the boards hard and had to be helped up when he started showing us how fast he could skate.  The second new kid was Dwayne Robertson.  He’s very loud and was showing off as soon as he got the puck.  Mr. Tibbles said that he was from Austin and is known for his puck handling skills.  The third kid was Kenny Wu.  I’ve actually heard of him.  Tammy used to watch him on the TV all the time and liked to talk about him.  He’s from San Francisco.  I can see why he was picked… he’s one of the best figure skaters in the world in our age group.  The fourth is a goalie named Julie Gaffney.  Connie must be happy… she’s not the only girl on the team this year.  Mr. Tibbles said she was from Bangor, Maine.  She looks like she’s a better goalie than Goldberg, but I could be wrong.

 

    Mr. Tibbles didn’t have a chance to introduce the last kid.  Coach can’t believe that Dean Portman is a teenager, but he’s about the same size as me.  I had to stand here and watch as he skated across the ice, singing, and playing his hockey stick like a guitar.  He started pushing people down and even put Kenny on top of the net before pushing the kid over.  Who does he think he is?  That kid is one-third his size and he’s pushing him around?  I joined the rest of the team in yelling at the new kids.  I can hear Goldberg yelling at Julie over everyone else.  Coach yelled for us to freeze.  He tried to give a nice speech about how we have to come together to play hockey and represent the USA, but Mr. Tibbles ruined the effect by interrupting a lot.

 

    After kicking Mr. Tibbles off the ice, Coach had us facing off against the new Ducks.  A few minutes into the scrimmage, I can already tell that I’m going to hate Portman.  He’s been knocking us down left and right and _laughing_ about it.  I finally got the puck and lined up my shot against Julie.  I can hear Coach yelling at the team to look out.  I kinda hope it hits Portman… he’s standing right in front of the net (no, I am not aiming specifically at him… it’s not my fault that he’s standing where right where the puck is going to go).  As the team flees from the path the puck is about to take, I can hear him calling my friends a bunch of wusses.  As soon as the puck came at his face though, he moved just as quickly as the rest of the team.  Julie moved a split second after he did, not that it mattered.  The puck hit the cross bar and bounced off, hitting one of the ceiling rails and bouncing around a little bit before heading right at Mr. Tibbles, who had come back with some woman.  She yelled at him to duck, but he wasn’t quick enough and the puck hit him right in the middle of the forehead, knocking him out.  I’m glad it bounced a few times before it hit him; otherwise it might’ve done a lot more damage.

 

    He woke up a few minutes later.  The woman with him made sure he was alright before introducing herself… she’s our new tutor.  Portman’s “I don’t need no school” was _very_ helpful in convincing Coach that we didn’t need to go to school this year (hear the sarcasm here).  Goldberg’s idea of optional attendance was a good idea, but it didn’t work.  I guess this is what Coach meant when he told Jan that our schooling wouldn’t suffer.

 

    After we met Ms. McKay, Coach told us that we had a few hours off to get settled into our rooms.  We would have lunch in the college food court at twelve every day, followed by two hours of school and three hours of practice followed by supper at five thirty.  This (plus a two hour practice and two hours of school every morning) would be our schedule for the next two weeks.  With this schedule, we would have time to finish our homework and have some fun every night.  Coach told us that he had fixed the roommate assignments with help from Mr. Tibbles and that we would have to figure out who our roommates are ourselves.  I can guess who mine is.

 

    Yup, looks like I’m right.  I’m stuck with Portman.  I’ve known the guy for all of an hour, and I don’t like him.  I can’t stand people who pick on their own teammates and then laugh about it.  I’ve spent the last year protecting my team against bullies, and that’s what he’s acting like… a bully.

 

    It’s almost lunch time.  Portman and I can’t agree on anything.  He keeps making jokes about the other Ducks and generally getting on my nerves.  I’ve been trying not to get mad, but he finally makes me snap.  Yes, I threw the first punch, but he shouldn’t be talking about my friends like that.  Coach had to come and break up the fight.  Counting our argument on the ice this morning, we’ve fought twice, and Coach is already sick of it.  He gave us a short lecture about how we have to work together to protect our team and that if we kept fighting, he would have no choice but to bench us during games.  He told us that we had until tomorrow to figure it out ourselves before he started giving us extra practices.  We agreed to stay away from each other if at all possible until after practice tonight (Coach’s _suggestion_ ).

 

    Ms. McKay made sure we didn’t sit anywhere near each other in class.  We had to do the normal introductions, and then she let us sit around and talk.  The others told me their room assignments (Charlie was with Adam, Connie with Julie, Goldberg and Averman with Dwayne, Jesse with Luis, and Guy with Kenny) and sympathized with mine.  The last hour of class ended up being more of a gossip session than anything else.

 

    Portman and I are either going to kill each other or become best friends.  Every time I say something, he contradicts me.  Of course, I’m doing the same thing to him, but he just keeps getting on my nerves.  Coach has us do a lot of communication and teamwork exercises during practice and even lets us out a little early since it’s our first day back (we probably would’ve been let out earlier if not for us breaking a major piece of equipment and a wall though).  We all went to supper as a group (with me on one end of the group and Portman on the other since we did promise Coach).

 

    After supper, we all went back to the dorms.  I ended up sitting in silence, staring across the room at someone doing the exact same thing.  It only took two minutes to make me decide that silence was boring and reach for my stereo.  I grabbed the first tape I could reach and Nirvana boomed across the room.  Portman started smiling and singing along.  Huh… so we do have something in common.  Several songs and a few tape changes later; we were getting along as if we had known each other for years.  We didn’t just sing along with the tape.  We took the time between songs to figure out that we both wanted to protect the rest of the team and that we both had lousy parents.  The only major difference is that he still lives with his.  I told him about joining District 5 and my problems skating (I’m still a little shaky when I’m not focused on something else) and he told me about his team in Chicago and his problems with school.  I don’t think there’re going to be any more major fights between us.  There might be some hatred from the rest of the team when they hear our music, but we’re bigger than they are and most of them should know by now that I won’t give up my stereo (hey, the walls at the brothers’ place might be thick, but they’re not completely soundproof and most of the team have stayed there at least once over the last year).

 

    Coach was really happy that we’re getting along now.  He didn’t even ask for details.  Practice and school both went a lot smoother now that I’m not worried about a bully terrorizing my friends and the team isn’t worried about being pulled into the middle of a fight between the two biggest players.  Our two weeks here went by a lot faster than I thought they would.  We were all given a few hours to pack, and then we were shuffled straight to the airport for our flight to LA.  Coach had warned all of us that if we didn’t behave, he would bench us, so there were few problems (other than Goldberg asking for food all the time).


	22. New Jerseys and The First Game

    Our first week in LA was almost exactly like the last two weeks.  We slept, ate, and went to practice and school.  The only difference was that Coach gave us time every day after lunch to sightsee as long as we went in groups.  Portman and I snuck out the second night and found every place within a mile of the dorms that would let teenagers in to eat.  Our brand new “Team USA” jackets may have had something to do with a few of the open doors though.  Mr. Tibbles had given us our new jerseys a few days before we got here.  I like them, but I also agree with Charlie.  We’re the ones that have to wear them, but we didn’t get any say in what they look like?  I’ve seen some of the other teams’ jerseys… they get to have their team name on them, but we don’t?  Not only that, but he put my last name on the back of my jersey. I had a deal with Coach that mine would have my first name. He didn’t understand why until I moved in with Jan and Hans. I don’t think Tibbles even thought that we’re old enough to be able to make decisions like that, and he definitely didn’t understand the name thing.  I’m liking him less and less the longer we’re here.

 

    Our first game is against Trinidad and Tobago.  They get really cool jerseys and a band.  Of course, we only got to hear the band twice during our game, but it was still cool.  With all the PR stuff Mr. Tibbles has been doing, you would think that we would at least have a song that plays when we came out.  Nope, we get nothing… nothing except some guy in the audience that loves to annoy Jesse.  Oh, me and Portman got a new nickname.  We’re officially the Bash Brothers.  The name was mentioned in the paper that covered our game.  Apparently, Mr. Tibbles called us that and one of the reporters heard him.


	23. Press Conferences and Room Assignments

    I have found a part of hockey that I absolutely hate… press conferences.  We’ve only had one so far, but I don’t like being the center of attention off the ice.  The fact that the Iceland coach butted in doesn’t make me like these things any more.  And why is our mascot a bear? We’re ducks.  I don’t think Mr. Tibbles listened to a word Jan said about us. Plus, he didn’t tell Coach who was coaching the Iceland team… shouldn’t we have as much information as possible about the teams we’re going against?

 

    We got new room assignments when we got to LA.  The girls are still by themselves, and Coach made sure that me and Portman are in the same room with no other roommates, but he put Dwayne, Kenny, Luis, and Goldberg in one room.  I think he’s asking for trouble, especially since he’s living large in some big apartment on the other side of the city.  The pranks started within two days, and have continued ever since.  The four of them leave me, Portman, Charlie, Adam, and the girls alone (they pranked the girls on the second night we were here.  Connie and Julie decided that a fitting punishment was to steal all of their clothes… I don’t think Luis ever found his favorite t-shirt).


	24. Italy, Ice Cream, Iceland, and Russ

    Last night, we beat Italy by eleven points.  Coach was really happy and gave us a day off because he had some sort of photo shoot to go to.  Charlie, Adam, Connie, Guy, and Julie went to some movie.  Averman, Goldberg, Jesse, and Dwayne decided to find stuff to take home with them.  Kenny, since he’d been here before, showed Luis around the city.  Me and Portman explored the city before going for ice cream… we saw Coach with the Iceland lady.  I think she’s their trainer.  We have a game against Iceland tomorrow night.  Why would he be with her?  Portman said exactly what I was thinking, except he doesn’t know how much Coach means to us old Ducks.  I had told him what happened last year, but I don’t think he really got it.

 

    Our game starts in a few minutes, so we’re in the locker room getting ready.  Portman and I had already agreed to ask Coach about what he did last night.  I can’t believe that he lied to us.  He’s changing back into what he was before.  His _inspirational_ speech before the third period just proved that.  When we lost, his speech was almost exactly the same as the first “We just lost a game and it’s all your fault” speech that he gave to District 5.  Yeah, we lost twelve to one, but it’s not the end of the world, just like District 5’s loss to the Hawks didn’t cost them the championship. This is a double elimination tournament after all.  I fully blame Mr. Tibbles for at least some of this.  Coach only gets like this when he’s more worried about image than the team, and Mr. Tibbles has been pushing image on Coach ever since they first met.

 

    It was nearly 1AM when Coach let us go back to our dorms.  Portman and I had to help carry some of the others because we were all so tired.  The two of us are used to late nights because of our home lives (or former home life in my case).  When we got up the next morning (what coach in his right mind keeps us up until one and then wakes us up at 5 AM?!), we were still really tired and sore, but _Captain Blood_ didn’t care.  We practiced every waking moment that wasn’t devoted to school or meals and even they were cut short.  I skipped lunch one day to call Jan and tell him what was going on.  He promised to do something about it if he could.  I expect Coach to be getting a stern phone call soon. It was just luck that we didn’t have any games for the next few days.

 

    A week later, we finally convinced Ms. McKay to give us a day off.  We decided to spend it working out.  That loudmouth that annoys Jesse called us out, so we went and played a game against him and his friends.  It was the most fun we’d had since before the Iceland game.  The bus to take us back showed up just as our game was winding down.  No one won and no one lost and we have a standing invitation to come back and play again.  I have no doubt that we’ll be there as often as we can while we’re in LA.

 

    We have a game tonight against Germany, so the bus had to take us back a little early, but it all worked out… at least until we got on the ice and found out that Coach was nowhere to be found.  Charlie, in a stroke of genius, convinced Ms. McKay to be our coach for the night.  If Coach doesn’t show up at all, I think Jesse (and others) will probably lock him in his house and force him to leave us alone.  Luckily for him, he showed up with a sincere apology.

 

    I looked up when the game was over and there was Jan sitting with Russ.  I knew that he would do something, but I didn’t expect him to actually close the shop and come to LA.  The brothers have never closed the shop in all the time I’ve known them. He decided to stay and help out with our training.  I don’t think he liked being at the shop alone.


	25. Adam and Fame

    It’s been three days since Jan got here, and Coach found out that Adam’s wrist was hurt a lot more than he let on.  Adam was taken to the hospital for x-rays, and they found out that one of the bones was fractured.  Coach benched him immediately despite how much he complained.  He was still allowed to come to practice, but he couldn’t really do much except skating drills.

 

    After our game against Canada, mine and Portman’s pictures got put in the newspaper, which made us really famous, and Charlie got Coach to put Russ on the team in Adam’s place… with Adam’s blessing. Not only that, but we got some really good news. Russia took Iceland down a notch and now, we’re tied. If they lose one more time, they’re out.  Russ got his picture in the papers after our win against Russia. His knuckle-puck made him famous.


	26. A Comparison

    We only have one game left now… against Iceland.  I’m getting a sense of déjà vu here… us against a team in black that beat us before… a team of guys that are a lot bigger than most of us and mean enough to injure one of our players.  This sounds just like last year with the Hawks.  The only difference is that their coach is a lot meaner than Reilly was. Stanson also didn’t care if anyone knew he was trying to injure other players.


	27. Iceland, Minnesota, and News

    Right before we went out on the ice, Adam came in.  His wrist is fine now… the only problem is that we don’t have any spots left on the team since we got Russ.  Charlie gave up his spot.  He’s always been more of a coach to us than a good player, and he knows it. There is a reason Coach made him captain.

 

    This game is going to be brutal.  Only me and Portman are big enough to take these guys on head to head, and we can’t do much.  Iceland was ready for Russ. They knew better than to let him keep the puck long enough to get a shot. Then, Adam was sent in. Coach had to make me and Portman sit down after Sanderson hit Adam’s injured wrist.  After that, Dwayne started showing off, and Iceland got the puck again.  Luis tried to catch the guy, but his inability to stop just made matters worse.  Stanson has done his homework, I’ll give him that.  He knew exactly how to counter every move we had.  Coach finally put me and Portman in at the same time and let us fight back.  We got to mess with their heads a little.  I don’t think they know how to play against people their own size who aren’t afraid to help out smaller teammates.  Kenny messed with them too with his figure skating.  He gave us our first goal, and then he tried to take on their goalie.  Me and Portman went wild after that… okay, so we went a LITTLE overboard, but still, I think we deserved to have a little fun.  It’s not like we were kicked out of the game.  We just got put in the box with Kenny, who we have now adopted as our Little Bash Brother.  What Dwayne did was far worse anyway.  He interrupted game play and made Coach roll his eyes.  While it was really funny, Coach didn’t think so, and neither did the refs.  He got put in the box for roping the guy that went after Connie. Sanderson deserved every ounce of humiliation he got for being roped and then for being knocked down by Connie and tripping over the rope.

 

    Coach’s speech between second and third period did a good job at getting us back on track.  When Jan came in with our new uniforms, I know that the crowd could hear us cheering.  I also know that he had something to do with the music that was playing during that period.  I just can’t prove it.  Third period was a lot different than the other two.  Charlie came up with some truly impressive plays, Goldberg had some great saves, and the team worked better that it had since before the first game we played against Iceland. Connie and Adam scored another two points.  Luis even stopped once without running into anything or anyone and made the shot.  If it hadn’t been for Russ and Goldberg changing places however, we would never have tied and forced a shootout.  Jesse got to take the first shot… score.  Then Iceland got one.  Guy scored shot number two.  Goldberg stopped Iceland from getting another one.  Dwayne decided to showboat and missed.  Iceland got number two.  I got our number three, redemption for not scoring against him during the first game.  Iceland got their third shot in.  Adam got number four with no problems.  Then Coach put Julie in against Stahl… the leading scorer on their team.  No one else had seen Julie play.  We were all worried that she had missed until she stood up and threw the puck down despite the fact that we could all see the lights that tell if the puck goes in or not.  We went wild.  After shaking the hands of the Iceland players, we got our huge trophy.  After the game, we voted on it and decided that Jan would keep the main trophy in the shop while the rest of us took our smaller ones home.

 

    We stayed in LA for a few more days before we were sent back to Minnesota.  The five new ducks (minus Russ, who is number 6) stayed with me and Jan (except for Julie, who stayed with Connie) for a few more days.  We had a big campfire the night before they left.  Dwayne played the guitar for us and we all sang every song we could think of until we were forced to go to bed (everyone stayed with me and Jan that night, even Connie and Julie). That next morning, everyone was ready to go home, even Portman. Two nights before everyone had to go home, Portman had gotten a phone call… he was going to have a younger sibling at some point in the next six months. Before he got that call, he was ready to beg Jan to take him in like the brothers did with me. He decided that he couldn’t leave a baby in that house without someone protecting him or her, so he would go back.


	28. Skipping School, A Choice, Eden Hall, Bad News, and A Team Reunion

            Since Ms. McKay is an awesome teacher, we had all skipped a grade during the tournament. She let us take the tests that would allow us to graduate eighth grade, and we all passed with decent grades. This fact meant that we didn’t have to go to school for the whole next semester. Eden Hall, the local preppy high school, sent all of us scholarships once summer started. Two weeks later, we were all standing behind our new headmaster listening to him making a totally bogus speech about how much the school was proud to have us. Coach pulled Charlie off to the side to talk to him once the speeches were over. Portman and I went to talk to Hans and Jan. Portman was only in Minnesota for the day; he had to go back to Chicago early the next morning. Hans and Jan had their suspicions about what was going on, like they did with me, but they would wait for him to come to them. They didn’t know about why he was staying there. His little sister, Kyra, had been born two days before he got the scholarship offer. She was still in the hospital, but was due to come home the day after tomorrow. Portman, who was again staying at the house with us, told me that she had been born really early and that’s why they kept her in the hospital for two and a half weeks. He had a picture of himself holding her… she was really tiny. His hand was almost bigger than she was. He’s not going to take the scholarship. He can’t leave her behind in Chicago, can’t leave her with those people.

 

    He didn’t want anyone on the team to know the truth, so he made up some bogus story about not coming back because Coach was leaving. Charlie took the news in typical Charlie fashion… he became hurt and sarcastic. If it had just been the team he did it to, that’s would’ve been fine, we can see through it. The problem came when he used it on Coach Orion. It’s bad enough that the headmaster, the school board, and the Varsity team hate us, now we’ve got Orion after us, too. I get that he wants us to look and act a little more professional, but he’s going about it the wrong way. We, as a team, have a very specific way of acting that our fans expect… it’s why we got the scholarships in the first place. He doesn’t know anything about us, including what positions we play on the ice, and his speeches aren’t helping… they remind most of us of Coach’s _Captain Blood_ days. If he wants us to play at the level he wants, then he needs to put us back in our spots and put Adam back on the JV squad. I mean, Adam is good enough for Varsity, but I still remember what happened the last time he had to switch teams. It never works out well for him. And taking away Charlie’s captain spot? That was just low, though I understand it considering how he’s been acting… not that I’ll tell Charlie that. Our team is falling apart at the seams.

 

    Of course, nothing will help us if Charlie doesn’t lighten up. His attitude combined with the way most of Varsity (Adam and Scooter, who had a crush on Julie, excluded) were acting was ruining any hope we had of gaining the respect of the school board. They had been threatening to rescind our scholarships all semester. It’s a good thing they didn’t know about the prank war, or we really would be in trouble.

 

    The final two pranks made everything boil over. Jesse, who had decided not to go to Eden Hall since Terry couldn’t go, had been kept up-to-date on everything that had been going on. Believe it or not, he’s the only level headed one on the team, honorary or not, except for the brothers. Jesse let us know that Adam didn’t know about the dinner until it was too late. Apparently, the Warriors were a lot like the Hawks were. They were forcing him to go along with it. That’s why we told Jesse ahead to time about our retaliation so he could warn Adam. He was also forced to play for Varsity at the early morning game. Of course, we didn’t get a chance to force Charlie to listen to reason about Adam before the game. He was at his sarcastic, angry best that morning, which meant that he had no problem starting a fight on the ice.

 

    Coach stealing our jerseys, or trying to anyway, finally pushed Charlie over the edge. I left with him because it just felt wrong to not be Ducks. I knew when I left that I would be back, but I had to take a stand. Me and Charlie were the only ones who had never quit being Ducks at any point; well, us and Portman, I can’t count him as quitting since I know the real reason he left.

 

    I went straight home and told Hand and Jan what had happened that morning. They had already guessed that something like this would happen eventually. They also knew me well enough to know that I wasn’t the one who needed to be talked into going back. I skipped the game that night and school Monday to hang out with Charlie, and then I went back. Sunday night, Charlie showed up at the house. Hans had been waiting up for him. I don’t know what Hans said, but it didn’t seem to make a very big impact on him.

 

    Tuesday morning, Jan came to the school and called a team meeting before classes started. He gave us the news in person. He told us that Hans had had a heart attack Monday night after I had gone back to the dorms… that Hans didn’t make it and that no one could find Charlie. None of us left the rink that day, and no one else came in. I think Coach Orion barred the doors and stood guard for us.

 

    The funeral was held that Friday. Coach was able to get time off in order to be there. He tried to talk to Charlie, but Charlie was still blaming Coach for a lot of things and left before the talk could happen. That Saturday, Jesse got us all together for a game. The only people missing were Portman and Charlie, not counting the ones who weren’t able to play in the Goodwill Games (Terry had broken his other leg a few days earlier and wasn’t there either). Coach and Charlie showed up about an hour after we got started. Then, everyone, even Coach, played. It was the first time Charlie had been in a good mood since Coach told us that he was leaving and the most fun the rest of us have had since the semester started.

 

    We had a game Sunday night, so we were on the bus by three that afternoon. Charlie even showed up and begged to be let back on the team. We were ready to face whatever the game threw at us, but we weren’t ready for the headmaster to show up and tell us that our scholarships were being taken away at the board meeting the next day. The entire JV team was going to be kicked out of the school at the end of the semester. Adam was still technically a member of Varsity, and his family could pay for Eden Hall any way if they wanted to, but his scholarship was being taken, too. Coach Orion was going to get fired, too. We all decided to fight the board’s decision, but we didn’t think it would do much good.

 

    With the exception of Hans’s funeral, it was the first time the entire team, Adam included, had stood together since that first practice. Calling in Coach as our lawyer was a brilliant move. The last couple of times he had done something like this, we got new equipment and uniforms and Tommy, Tammy, and Adam had joined the team. He got the board to reverse their decision in less than ten minutes. The promise of another chance to take on Varsity, this time with Adam on our side, was just icing on the cake.

 

    Coach Orion finally figured out how to teach us, and we finally figured out how to learn from him. Skating through the streets and picking up trash off the ice worked a lot better than him yelling at us. Giving the team back their jerseys (I had kept mine, as had Charlie and Adam) didn’t hurt either. Jan may have had them made, but Hans had been the one to design the Duck emblems that we used. If we won this game, not only did we become the new Varsity team, but Hans’s Duck emblem would become the new school mascot.


	29. A Phone Call and The Truth

    A few nights before the game, I called Portman. I had been calling him once a week or so since the start of the school year, telling him about the team and Coach Orion and listening to him talk about Kyra and how boring it was at his school. We didn’t get to talk much that night, I could hear people yelling in the background and Portman humming to his little sister before someone knocked on the door. I don’t know who it was, but they were apparently important because he had to hang up before he could tell me about what Kyra had done that week. I hope whoever it is, they have good news.

 

    He needs some good news because he has been taking care of Kyra basically by himself for over five months. He’s even been taking her to hockey practice with him. One of the team moms there has been watching her while he’s at school and practice. He told the team that his parents had to work during the day and the woman had volunteered to babysit for free as long as his parents provided everything she needed. Portman would drop Kyra off at the woman’s house before school and the woman would bring her to practice afterwards. On the days with no practice, the woman would pick both her son and Portman up from school and take them home. Portman always walked home after he picked up Kyra because he didn’t want the woman to meet his parents. He knew that it would happen eventually, but he was trying to put it off for as long as possible. He told me all of this during our phone calls. I’m actually amazed that he let Kyra out of his sight during the school day. He’s very protective of her. It scared him that she was so tiny when she was born. He didn’t want to admit it, but he did eventually. The fact she had to stay in the hospital for so long didn’t help any. Our conversations always end with him trying to figure out how to move to Minnesota without being forced to leave her behind. I don’t have any answers for him, but I wish I did.


	30. Varsity and A Team Meeting

            It was game day. The team was mostly together. Jesse and Terry were in the stands, sitting with the parents and holding a seat for Jan. Jan had told us he had something he had to do before he got there and for us not to worry. We hadn’t heard from Coach since the day of the board meeting, so he wasn’t there either, and of course Portman was still in Chicago.

 

            The game was going better than the first one at least. Everyone was playing hard, and the game was brutal. It was even worse than the Iceland game because they had relied on their size and speed to win while Varsity actually had a strategy. And then Guy got checked and had to be helped off the ice. At the end of the second period, the score was still zero to zero.

 

* * *

 

            Now, I know that Coach must’ve been the one knocking on the door in Chicago. Portman was back. The first thing he did was take out Cole in a legal check. Of course, with two minutes left, the ref, who had been making bad calls the entire game, put Portman in the penalty box, not that that stopped him from making a scene. The crowd loved it. Unfortunately, we had to skate two men down the last two minutes of the game. Charlie stopped Varsity from making a shot after Julie got out of position and then went head to head against Riley. Charlie got the puck and skated towards the goal. He couldn’t get past the other players, so he passed it back to Goldberg, who had no clue what he was doing. Then, Goldberg made the shot! Ducks win! And Scooter kissed Julie. An “Eden Hall Ducks” flag with Hans’s Duck symbol dropped down in front of the Warrior symbol. Luis went to his girlfriend, the ex-girlfriend of Riley, and kissed her in front of her ex. I looked up at the stands. Jan had made it to the game, and he had little Kyra in his arms. I don’t know what Coach did, but if Portman signed his scholarship, then it must’ve been big. The crowd eventually swarmed us, and we spent nearly an hour on the ice celebrating. Once the crowd went away, Jan came down to us, but he stayed off the ice. Portman had left off his pads when he redressed after stripping in the box, so he skated over, picked up his little sister, and brought her back to the team.

 

            “Guys, this is Kyra Jamie Portman, my little sister. She is six months old. She’s why I couldn’t come earlier. I couldn’t leave her behind. Now, we’re here to stay though. Jan took over the guardianship of both of us.”

 

            Connie and Julie immediately went from kick-ass hockey stars to teenage girls when Kyra was introduced. I have no doubt that they would’ve snatched her out of his arms if not for two things: he was bigger than them and they still had their hockey pads on. He did have to promise them that they could hold her later in order to get them to stop though. Coach Orion finally had to come up and shoo the girls away from Portman so the team could hit the showers. Portman gave Kyra back to Jan and followed them.


	31. An Explanation and an Ending

            Twenty minutes later, the team was out of the locker room, and the girls were swarming Jan. Charlie’s mom and girlfriend had both moved to where he was standing. Mrs. Oliver knew my story, but none of the team knew Portman’s but me and Jan. This was going to take a lot of explaining.

 

            “Question,” Goldberg stated, “does this mean that you two really are brothers now?”

 

            “Almost.”

 

            “What are you guys talking about?” Linda asked. Out of everyone standing there, she was the only one who didn’t know anything about what had happened to me. The others knew at least some of the story.

 

            “The day after we won the state championships against the Hawks,” I said after everyone looked directly at me as if telling me to answer, “I packed my stuff and basically ran away. I went to the skate shop and asked for Jan and Hans’s help. Adam’s dad went to my house the next day and got my guardianship transferred to the brothers, and my dad went to jail. I’m not sure of the exact details of the deal he made. I’ve been there almost two years now. Last year at this time, we were sent to the Junior Goodwill Games. You probably heard about that. What you probably didn’t hear was that we hated each other. I thought he was a bully….”

 

            “And I couldn’t stand him,” Portman interrupted.

 

            “The main problem was that we had to room together. I still don’t know why Coach and Mr. Tibbles put us in the same room. Anyway, Coach made us promise not to go anywhere near each other until we had to. That first night, we almost came to blows. I finally got fed up with the silence and turned on my tunes. Turns out, we both like the same music. After that, we realized that we both had crappy parents. The only difference was that he still lived with his. So, we became friends, and Mr. Tibbles named us the Bash Brothers.”

 

            “I spent the rest of the Goodwill Games trying to decide if I should go to Jan and ask him to take me in. A few days before I went back to Chicago, I found out that my mom was pregnant. I couldn’t leave a sibling there alone, so I kept my mouth shut and went back. Kyra was born two weeks before the speech where we were presented with scholarships here. She came home from the hospital two days after the speech. I couldn’t leave Chicago without her, so I decided not to accept the scholarship. Coach came to Chicago last week and convinced my parents to sign over both me and Kyra to Jan in exchange for no charges being pressed against them. So, here we are. Jan is going to take care of Kyra while I’m at school or practice. One of the team moms in Chicago has been babysitting for me this semester.”

 

            “Wait, you’ve been taking care of a baby mostly by yourself for six months?” Russ asked, sounding like he couldn’t wrap his head around the concept.

 

            “Yeah, I mean, no one else was going to. My parents don’t care about either of us. I’m amazed they even paid the hospital bill,” Portman replied.

 

            “Huh… you learn something new every day,” Averman said.

 

            “What?”

 

            “Well, Portman is a Bash Brother and yet he can take care of a newborn; it’s just weird,” Goldberg stated.

 

            I just shook my head at them. I know Portman and it didn’t seem weird at all, but I guess if you didn’t know him it would be. As the conversation went on, I found out that Jan had put Portman and Kyra in the room across the hall from mine (with a room being set up just for Kyra near Jan’s room for when he was watching her overnight). Portman was not going to stay in the dorms except for days where he had to be at school very early or very late (our scholarships covered dorm costs, so it’s not that big a deal. I’ve been doing the same thing.) Coach Orion eventually broke up the group on the ice and told us that the rink was about to close. Since it was Friday, Jan invited everyone back to our house for the night (or at least the ones who stay in the dorms). Julie was supposed to stay at Connie’s that night anyway, so it all worked out, and our celebratory party moved home. Jan ordered pizza for everyone and we sat around the living room and talked.

 

            I don’t think the team really believed that Portman had been taking care of his sister for six months until Kyra decided that she was hungry. He didn’t even think about asking for help, he just grabbed her bottle and a towel and sat there feeding her while everyone talked around him. Once she was fed and burped, he took her in the other room and tucked her into her crib. Julie and Connie (and the rest of the team, but especially them) were staring at him when he got back carrying a baby monitor like they couldn’t believe what they had just seen. Averman opened his mouth like he was going to make a joke, but Jesse reached over and smacked the back of his head before he got a single syllable out.

 

            “Fulton,” Charlie started, “how long have you known about all this?”

 

            Everyone got quiet while waiting on my answer… I guess that’s the question they all wanted the answer to.

 

            “I’ve known since before he went back to Chicago after the Goodwill Games. He also showed me a picture of Kyra the day Dean Buckley gave us our scholarships.”

 

            “So you lied to us about why he didn’t come back?”

 

            “I asked him to. I didn’t know how to phrase what was going on without telling about my home life. Kyra was the only reason I ever went back to Chicago after the Goodwill Games. I figured no one would look too close at the story since Coach was leaving.”

 

            “So, back to my original question… does this mean that the Bash Brothers are actually brothers now?” Goldberg asked.

 

            “They might as well be,” Jesse said.

 

            “They have always acted like brothers…,” Connie said, narrowing her eyes, “and Fulton has never become friends with anyone that fast before. I mean, I knew him for months before I even heard him speak.”

 

            The others all agreed with Connie and Jesse. None of them had heard Fulton speak until Coach started trying to convince District 5 to become Ducks, not even in class. It had surprised everyone when he and Portman had become friends in less than two days.

 

            “Fulton being quiet? I don’t believe it,” Russ said sarcastically.

 

            “One of these days, we’ll tell you the whole story,” Charlie told Russ and the rest of the newer Ducks, “including Adam’s part in it.”

 

            “Before we do all that,” Goldberg interrupted, “let’s celebrate beating Varsity and taking over Eden Hall!”

 

            Everyone cheered, but quietly because we didn’t want to wake up Kyra (Averman and Goldberg were both a bit louder than the rest of us, but Julie and Connie made them shut up). We stayed up and celebrated until the girls all had to go home and then everyone started leaving. Charlie tried to get his mom to let him stay, but she decided that he needed to be at home while me and Jan got used to Portman and Kyra living here.

 

            Portman was quickly introduced to the nightly “do your homework in the living room after dinner” routine while I made sure to finish any work I had left after the last few days. Portman didn’t have any homework for Eden Hall yet, but he did have a lot of paperwork that he and Jan had to fill out and turn in Monday when school started. Jan helped him finish it just as Kyra started crying. Portman was up and halfway down the hall before Jan was even up out of his chair. He calmed her down, and she fell asleep quickly. Then, he returned back to the living room and plopped down with a very quiet sigh that he tried to hide.

 

            “Dean,” Jan said, “when was the last time you slept through the night?”

 

            “Before Kyra was brought home,” he said once he saw that Jan had heard him.

 

            “Go sleep, I’ll take care of the little one tonight. Gordon and I put an extra bed in Fulton’s room for you on the nights you need a little more sleep. Fulton, will you please help me move Kyra’s crib? I will go and buy a second one tomorrow after the two of you wake up.”

 

            Portman just nodded and did what he was told, which told me just how tired he was. I went with Jan and moved the crib while he held Kyra. It took maybe fifteen minutes to move it and some basic baby supplies to the room that will eventually be the nursery. It was next door to Jan’s room and on the other side of the house from my room and Portman’s room. The two of us wouldn’t be able to hear her even without our music on. Once we got the crib and the baby monitor set up, Jan told me to go to bed. I made it back to my room and, after turning on my music and getting changed, basically collapsed on my bed. My brother in all but blood was snoring on the other side of the room, my music was blaring, and my new little sister was a few doors down the hallway sleeping peacefully. All was right in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are appreciated. I do not currently have a beta, so please tell me if there are any major grammar errors.


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